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Article: LE CORBUSIER'S PUNJABI DREAM
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 3, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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LE CORBUSIER, the austere patriarch of modern architecture, had
always dreamt of building a city. So when India's first prime
minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, first approached the Swiss son of a
watchmaker and asked him to design a new city on the wide plains of
Punjab, one "unfettered by traditions of the past", Le Corbusier
readily agreed, even though the money was paltry.
Le Corbusier had never travelled to India before taking the job,
and his team of young, European-trained Indian architects were
curious to see his first notebook sketches. Aditya Prakash
remembers: "He showed us drawings of villages and bullock carts, of
the beautiful women labourers." Some of the Indian assistants were ...